Possibly even “proof-read” should be “proofread”…

Sorry to disappoint. “By time” – which is manifestly wrong – is a typo due to the fact that I started out meaning to write a sentence opening “By the time” then changed my mind to a sentence which should have opened with “Over time” but forgot to replace “by” with “over”… When one is in a hurry, one does not proof-read.

There are many other mistakes in my contributions… which I have spotted upon re-reading… e.g. I forgot the “you” where I quote you and thank you for the compliment; I typed “well-research” instead of “well-researched”; that “slip” needed a “do” before and an “out” after; and possibly others which, neither being a proof-reader nor having the time, I cannot see right now.

So your reasoning is somewhat contorted… you rebuke me for not being a proof-reader! Hah! That’s some bad hat Harry!

Sorry to disappoint. “By time” – which is manifestly wrong – is a typo due to the fact that I started out meaning to write a sentence opening “By the time” then changed my mind to a sentence which should have opened with “Over time” but forgot to replace “by” with “over”… When one is in a hurry, one does not proof-read.

There are many other mistakes in my contributions… which I have spotted upon re-reading… e.g. I forgot the “you” where I quote you and thank you for the compliment; I typed “well-research” instead of “well-researched”; that “slip” needed a “do” before and an “out” after; and possibly others which, neither being a proof-reader nor having the time, I cannot see right now.

So your reasoning is somewhat contorted… you rebuke me for not being a proof-reader! Hah! That’s some bad hat Harry!

Not taking politicians’ words at face value gives licence to the same politicians to engage their mouth before consulting their brains because no matter how upright they happen to be, cynics will not believe them.

Cynics are usually happy-go-lucky people who couldn’t care less as long as they are fully provided for, are enjoying the good things in life, but suddenly, if a shred of adversity comes along the way, they immediately blame the system, government, church, press and anyone else under the sun.

Herr Hitler is a bad example because he actually meant what he publicly said about his ambition to rule the world and he came darned close to doing it too. Ironically it was Malta, the little rock which started his demise by helping, in no uncertain way the Allies’ defeat of Rommel in the North African campaign.

“Many times what a politician says is probably what he/she means but almost as often we refuse to take their words at face value.” This was certainly true with a certain Herr Hitler, possibly a role model for the Brotherly Leader of the Revolution.

Let me say that in my younger years (quite a while back) I was taught by three English teachers at the Hamrun Lyceum and I name them; Mr. Parker, Mr. Wood and Mr. Molloy. These teachers were as English as the Queen and they took no nonsense when it came to pronunciation and grammar. Yet, by Daphne’s reasoning, because at home I spoke more Maltese than English, I am not considered to be able to discern subtle hints ‘between the lines’.

Furthermore I have spent two thirds of my years in an English speaking country, my children were born in the same country and since they are not exactly fluent in Maltese, I rather speak to them in English.

This does not mean that when I write here, usually in a hurry, I do not take unnecessary licence or make spelling and grammatical errors. Do these occasional lapses disqualify me from being described as a ‘native language’ speaker/writer?

Daphne seems to forget that any quote by any politician is subject to interpretation and reading between the lines, is highly subjective.
Many times what a politician says is probably what he/she means but almost as often we refuse to take their words at face value. Cynicism quite often kills the joy in everyday life.

“One of the greatest novelists in English, Joseph Conrad, wasn’t born English. ”

And it shows. He writes as I would.

Mr Calleja,

Believe it or not, there are many flavours of English, depending not only on geographic region, but also on social class.

I suspect that you, like many Maltese, have not ventured far beyond London (indeed, many seem to think that England is London) and that your only experience of the native English language comes from taxi drivers, shopkeepers and bartenders.

As regards your comment regarding “the high cultural awareness of the average British citizen these days”, I’m afraid this again only shows your deep ignorance of the British middle and upper classes. Over the years I have been deeply humbled by the casual ease with which the English enjoy culture, theirs and others. Many Maltese, on the other hand, tend to endure culture for the sole sake of rising above their peers.

Now, a native speaker is defined to be “a speaker of a particular language who has spoken that language since earliest childhood”. I am curious how Mr. Calleja can claim that “the Maltese are not native English speakers”, when clearly this depends on the Maltese in question.

Of course, being a native English speaker doesn’t say anything about one’s comprehension skills so this argument is quite pointless.

[Daphne – I don’t speak Maltese English, Albert, unless I am dumbing-down deliberately in conversation to avoid being thought snotty. One of the defining factors of Maltese English is not, actually, the misuse of words or the strange sentence construction or even the loss of the interrogative form. It is the severely limited vocabulary. The accent is irrelevant. Native speakers of English who are Maltese have a distinct accent in the same way that, say, native speakers of English who are Canadian or Australian do. It’s just that there are only, I would say, a couple of thousand of us at most.]

Just like there is American English, Australian English New Zealand English, S. African English, there is also Maltese English. The message in which Cameron’s latest message is written in is neither British, or American, or any other type of language. It is diplomatic language, which is the mother tongue of no-one. It is learnt, little by little, in insititutions of learning.

[Daphne – Cameron’s message is written in simple English for a recipient who is not a native English speaker. However, it was apparently not simple enough. There is no such thing as ‘Maltese English’, Albert. The various forms of English which you mention are all governed by more or less the same strict rules of grammar and construction. They vary mainly through shifts in the meanings of nouns and, in American English (but not Canadian English) spelling. Malta cannot claim to have created its own form of English by misuse of words and catastrophic grammatical errors. The ‘English’ many Maltese use is comprehensible to other English-speakers. It has degenerated into a sort of patois. It is a patois I understand, one I can mimic and even use when necessary, but I would never use it to communicate with somebody who is not Maltese. ]

In any case, even Queen’s English or whatever you like to call it, is not a native language for anyone. It is a highly polished version of the spoken language of the people, used almost exclusively in writing or on formal occasions. This can be mastered by anyone who has been brought up speaking English, provided the right course of study is followed and in the right circles.

[Daphne – You are completely wrong. The Queen’s English is spoken by all members of the English (and Scottish, and Irish) upper-middle and upper classes, and it is learned from birth, not ‘mastered’. The younger generations tone it down so as to be able to fit in at university and work, but revert to it when among their own, and speak it exclusively as they grow older and are no longer subject to the various peer pressures of youth. The accent and intonation have changed a great deal over the years – you only have to listen to BBC news broadcasts from the 1960s to see what I mean – but all else remains more or less unchanged.]

“We might set up some tentative criteria for “prototypical native speaker of language L” as follows:-
1. He/she was born in a country C where L is the dominant language;
2. He/she acquired L as a child (preferably in C);
3. The inhabitants of C are regarded as speaking the standard form of L;
4. He/she has both grammatical, lexical, phonological and sociolinguistic competence in the standard spoken form ofL;
5. He/she mainly speaks L at home;
6. He/she is not bilingual, or, if bilingual, does not regularly code-switch between the standard form of L and a dialect of L, or between L and another language.”

“In bilingual or “diglossic” communities, the question of “mother-tongue” arises . . . . . . In these contexts, “mother tongue” is used as a convenient reference for determining who is a native speaker of a particular language or dialect; it is usually taken to be the language a speaker heard as a child, normally uses at home, or both.”
Robin Turner in http://neptune.spaceports.com/~words/native.html

“A first language (also native language, mother tongue, arterial language, or L1) is the language(s) a person has learned from birth or within the critical period, or that a person speaks the best and so is often the basis for sociolinguistic identity.”
Bloomfield, Leonard. Language quoted in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_speaker#cite_note-0

It took me some 15 minutes to find the above information online; a longer search to include, e.g. Chomsky, would have yielded even better results. I don’t know why people do not make more use of the amazing access to information that Internet offers.

In short, a Maltese native speaker of English is someone who has learnt the language on their mother’s knee, so to speak.